The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, presented annually by America’s department stores, now enters the metaverse. The virtual Parade will house five galleries of existing popular NFT collections, with the winning design becoming a real-life Parade balloon at the 2023 Parade. The experience can be accessed without the need for a crypto wallet and is powered by the OnCyber ​​metaverse.

This isn’t the company’s first foray into web3, as it released ten unique NFTs and 9,500 parade-themed pieces in 2021 to mark the 95th year of the annual parade. Bids for the one-of-a-kind pieces depicting iconic balloons reached $300,000, with proceeds donated to charity.

“Our genesis NFT runway collection last year was so successful that we wanted to give our digital community the opportunity to select a native NFT design to transform into a real-world Macy’s Parade balloon,” said Will Coss, Macy’s Executive Producer. Thanksgiving Parade. .

The five galleries in this year’s collection feature NFTs from Boss Beauties, Cool Cats, gmoney, SupDucks, and VeeFriends, which are all NFT communities with existing collections on OpenSea and Coinbase.

Following the strategy of companies like adidas, Macy’s association with recognizable NFT names tries to make the brand more attractive in the NFT space and leverages its existing communities. The Parade also allows users to mint a virtual gallery pass for $50, with the purchase price being donated to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America charity.

The metaverse is particularly suitable for events because it draws many people into a virtual space creating a sense of buzz. Established metaverses like Decentraland and The SandBox host events regularly. For example, in March, Decentraland hosted a Fashion Week with participants from big brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Estee Lauder, Forever 21 and Selfridges. Mastercard sponsored Decentaland Pride Week in June.